The weekly register. [volume] (Point Pleasant, Va. [W. Va.]) 1862-1909, 1887-09-14
.HoW MEN. LIVE AND nIE.
Peculiarities OF the worlds Records
1rorfa1ftr-vffaI staffaffc4

Pecuiiarities OF the worlds Records Of
11ortality-vitaI Statistics.
Scarcely a day passes when Dr.. John
Z. Nagle, deputy registrar of vital statis-
tics. does not receive bulletin or pam
phlef showing the statetof public health
IN some more or less remote country. In
return he: sends information to almost
evevt civilized government on earth. His
little Office in Mott street is filled with
elioics documents, written IN English,
Geritan, French, Portuguese, Spanish,
Russian, Roumanian, Danish, Swedish,
Hungarian. Italian and other tongues.
Complicated tables come in avalanches
from Great Britain and her colonies In all
quarters of the globe. A report from
Calc1tta shows that the .Amalgamated
rbusbee snd tank committee met four
times during the first quarter of the fiscal
year 1867. There is bibulous sug-
gestitn about the title of this useful body
which IS not diminished by the statement
that two of their meetings were held out
of dosrs
ofiail the European countries Rou-
mamie IS the most industrious in the
manufacture of statistics. She sends out
every year dozens of volumes bound IN
gaylyech rcd paper, each bearing the Inn
print OF the government bureau which is
sued it. Finland is determined that no
one shall be kept In doubt as to her exact
condition. In vast deserts of ten and
twelve syllable words is an occasional
oasis of French, which gives general
idea of what the Finnish statistician is
trying to get at. Private lunatic asylums
are ''yleisten sairachuoneiden lasaretti
osastoissa, - and public madhouses sshal-
luinhoitolaitoksissa.'' y Official reports
from Servia are printed in letters which
had narrow escape from being Greek.
Consonants, particularly "h'' and ..j'h
are strewn with an unsparing hand
through the Swedish compilation. The
Latin names of diseases are given in con-
nection with the Swedish, and a reader
who pays his money may take his choice.
club. eimeinflammation" is a
fashionable lung disease, and s.fyellerigal
anskap'' is delirium tremens. Protracted
drinking brings Swede to alkoholoss-
jukdom, and Dane to haeardevinssyg-
dom. When Stockholm citizen sue
cumbs to old age the doctor writes
salderdonisaptyning on the death GER
tificate. and everybody knows what the
trouble was. Neatly printed and volumin-
GUS reports come from Central and South
America, Venezuela, Colombia and the
Argentine Republic issue documents in
sonorous Spanish. Little Guatemala's
official pamphlets have gorgeous red bor-
ders.
The unspeakable Turk has soul above
figures, and never takes the pains to find
out the sanitary condition of his empire.
There Is story of a United States consul
in Turkish town who asked the local
pasha for estimates of the population.
In characteristic reply, beginning "Oh,
my lamb!-' the pasha said that he had
dwelt for forty years in the city, yet he
had never counted the houses over the
people that dwelt therein. He failed to
see why any man should seek after infor-
nation not vouchsafed by the wisdom of
Allah.
Several years ago DIR. Nagle says re-
ports from China and Japan were printed
In the yernacular. Now those interest
ing countries send to barbarian lands
hard facts in good English. The Celestial
yellow covers, like those of an old time
dime novel. But the medical reports of
the Chinese cities, garnished with mete-
geological tables and temperature charts
that look like maps of yacht race, con-
tain matter more Interesting than any
thing in yellow covered fiction. DIR. A.
Henry, treating of the health of Ichang,
says that although the scenery is majestic
and imposing, the filthy habits of the ma
tives give to the place unhealthy, mall
odorous and unesthetic features. The
people are strong, but drink hard and
smoke much opium. They never bathe
in water, but build fires in the open air
and stand where the smoke will envelop
their naked bodies. There are strong
prejudices against European physicians
and post mortem examinations. Heat
apoplexy, called lei ssu, kills many China
men. A native of Cheliang said that in
his province st1nstrokes were unknown,
although people often died from drink
ing too much cold water. AT Soochow
sudden alterations of cold and heat
caused agues and bowel complaints. It
was given out that the god of pestilence
had descended, and people, discarding
doctors and drugs, crowded the temples,
entirely neglecting treatment. There was
an alarming mortality among the hens at
Hankow. They were suddenly seized
with fits and died at once. AT Shanghai
an old woman went from house to house,
where people were i'll, to drive away dew
lis. The Incredible filth in which the
lower class Chinese live, their dense igno-
rance and utter carelessness cause fire.
quent epidemics, and make the work of
relief exceedingly difficult.-New York
Mail and Express.